The Beijing Winter Olympics are 11 months away. As a result of the Chinese Communist Party‘s brutal persecution of human rights, there is an international boycott of the Winter Olympics. Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee passed a bill to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from using the Winter Olympics to whitewash its image. The White House has also changed its statement from “no intention to boycott the Winter Olympics” to “undecided whether to participate”.
On Wednesday (Feb. 25), a White House spokesman told the media that the White House “has not made a final decision” on whether the United States will participate in next year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing and will seek the advice of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
On the 3rd of this month, the spokesman said that the White House had “not discussed any positions or plans related to the Beijing Winter Olympics”. The White House’s statement on the 25th may indicate a shift in its position under the pressure of domestic public opinion.
Previously, several members of Congress have proposed resolutions or letters to the White House calling for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The American values and Security in International Athletics Act, introduced by House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Republican Michael McCaul (R-Texas) on the 23rd, was quickly placed on the The American Values and Security in International Athletics Act was quickly placed on the Foreign Affairs Committee agenda and passed without opposition on Wednesday.
The bill is designed to inform U.S. athletes about threats to human rights, privacy and security posed by host countries, and to discourage host countries that persecute human rights from using international events to improve their image.
The bill requires that if an international event is hosted by a communist country, or if the host country is ranked in the worst category in the U.S. State Department’s human trafficking rating report, or is found to have human rights concerns, the Secretary of State shall submit relevant information to participants 180 days prior to the start of the event to explain this.
Speaking before the Foreign Affairs Committee, McCaul said that the Chinese Communist Party had used the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing to whitewash its image and that introducing the bill now would help protect U.S. athletes from persecution and prevent the Communist Party from using the Winter Olympics for propaganda purposes.
Because of the Chinese Communist Party’s live organ harvesting and human rights persecution in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, more than 180 groups worldwide have joined together to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics. Parliamentarians from many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, have also called on their governments to boycott.
But on Tuesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in the British House of Commons that “the UK does not normally support boycotts of sporting events”.
If the international community continues to condone the Chinese Communist Party, the human rights situation in China will continue to deteriorate, according to an analysis cited by Radio Free Asia.
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